Springfield Junior School

Highlights from Latest Inspection

What is it like to attend this school?

Springfield Junior school is a friendly and caring school.

Pupils are proud to attend this school, where everyone is welcome and included. Pupils are polite and have lovely manners. They speak with enthusiasm about their learning.

One pupil, typical of many, said, 'I just love learning!'

The school's successful work to embed high standards of behaviour means that pupils feel safe. They behave well in lessons. They strive to earn 'golden tickets' and prizes from the headteacher's prize box for trying their best.

The pastoral support for pupils is a strength of the school. Pupils value their time in 'the enchanted forest' where they can talk to adults... about any worries that they may have.

The school has high expectations of pupils and wants pupils to achieve well.

This includes pupils with special educational needs and/or disabilities (SEND). The school is highly inclusive. No pupil is left out.

The school broadens pupils' horizons and develops their understanding of the wider world. Pupils talk with enthusiasm about visits to Ilam Hall and outdoor residential centres. They are proud to contribute to the life of the school as house captains and love looking after the school's 'happy hens'.

What does the school do well and what does it need to do better?

In response to historically low outcomes, the school has made significant changes to the curriculum in the last two years. The changes are well considered. However, these changes did not have sufficient time to impact on the outcomes of previous cohorts.

There is a broad and balanced curriculum in place. The school is ambitious to ensure that learning is interesting and engaging. The efforts are paying off and pupils engage well with their learning.

In most subjects, the precise knowledge and skills that pupils learn is carefully sequenced. Pupils build on their prior learning, enabling them to know more and remember more of their learning in these subjects. There are a small number of subjects which are at an earlier stage of development.

In these subjects, the precise knowledge is not as clear. This means that teachers are not as effectively able to plan learning that builds over time or check if pupils are remembering what they have been taught. In some lessons, learning is not always adapted quickly enough to make sure that all groups of pupils achieve as well as they could.

Reading is given a high priority in this school. The strategies for teaching phonics and reading are well embedded. Staff are well trained.

Any pupils who are finding reading difficult are quickly spotted and given daily support to catch up. The school places a strong emphasis on exposing pupils to a range of rich texts and books to read. Pupils enjoy reading and talk with enthusiasm about their favourite books.

The school is ambitious for the significant number of pupils with SEND, including those with education, health and care plans. Pupils are included in all learning activities. The school swiftly identifies pupils who may require additional support.

In the Jaguars special educational needs (SEN) unit, skilled staff support pupils to learn and focus effectively on their learning. Pupils benefit positively from the range of strategies staff use to support them. Staff make sure that pupils with SEND access the ambitions of the curriculum with success.

Pupils benefit from highly effective pastoral support. Pupils trust staff to help them if they have any problems. This helps pupils to concentrate well in lessons.

The school ensures that important learning about areas such as equality, relationships and online safety are taught often. Pupils show respect and maturity as they discuss difference and diversity. One pupil, echoing the views of others said, 'Everyone should be treated the same, so we all have the exact rights to keep everyone safe.'

While pupils appreciate differences, their knowledge of different cultures and faiths is limited. This means that they are not as fully prepared for life in modern Britain as they could be.

Relationships between pupils and staff are respectful.

Staff consistently encourage pupils to be 'ready, respectful and safe'. Pupils respond well to this expectation. They demonstrate positive attitudes to learning.

Members of the trust have worked with the school to support school improvement. Through visits to the school, improvements are monitored and reviewed. The trust and school leaders have worked with relentless determination to provide the very best for all pupils.

Staff are proud to work at the school. They value the consideration that leaders have for their workload and well-being.

Safeguarding

The arrangements for safeguarding are effective.

What does the school need to do to improve?

(Information for the school and appropriate authority)

• In a small number of subjects, the precise sequence of knowledge that pupils should learn and remember is not clear. Consequently, pupils are not building on previous knowledge that will enable them to know more and remember more over time. The school needs to make sure that the essential knowledge that pupils need to know and remember in these subjects is clear and precisely set out, so that pupils achieve as well as they could.

• In some subjects, the teaching of the curriculum is not adapted well enough to meet pupils' needs and starting points. Where this is the case, pupils do not learn with as much success and confidence as they do in other subjects. The school should ensure that teaching is suitably adapted so that all groups of pupils learn well.

Some pupils' knowledge of different faiths and cultures is fragile. Although they know to respect difference, some pupils are not as aware as they should be of what these differences may be. The school should ensure that pupils have the necessary knowledge and understanding of different faiths and cultures, so that they are fully prepared for the next stages of their education.